Saw it last night and I was quite pleased. I was suprised that the big ugly executioner with the swords for arms never fought. Everyone in the theatre clapped when the queen killed the one jerk guy(you know, I call him what he is ). I was really suprised how many teens were there, wouldn't think they would be so interested in a movie about the Greeks; although, they probably just went for all the gore. Well worth the half hour wait at my theatre.
-Devin

Historically accurate movie? What is that exactly? Certainly we're not speaking of the likes of Braveheart or Kingdom of Heaven (both very entertaining mind you). Both of those movies are grossly inaccurate, and largely rewritten in order to captivate audiences. Personally, I'm indifferent, but to give some movies a free pass simply because they play off the illusion of historical authenticity seems a bit hypocritical.

I'll probably skip this one because I don't like Frank Miller's work, and I didn't like Sin City. As for historical accuracy; I could care less.

Uuuuummmmm....they fight. They are betrayed. They lose but kick the spit out of the Persians. And bought time for all the other Greeks to assemble their armies and stop Xerxes in his tracks. What can people possibly do to mess up that simple happening?

Man, I want to see that! People who have seen it tell me "It's the most bad-ass movie I've ever seen." They came out with adrenaline rushing through their veins. It sounds better than, dare I say it, Braveheart.

Beware the day my soul is unleashed. Not even Megablocks itself will rival its fire!

Braveheart is still better IMHO but the movie sure is great and will come into my DVD collection when out and I have to agree, I was anxiously waiting the big executioner to be put to the test and was slightly disappointed when he didn't.
anyways, WE ARE SPARTAN!

Lord Nev wrote:Uuuuummmmm....they fight. They are betrayed. They lose but kick the spit out of the Persians. And bought time for all the other Greeks to assemble their armies and stop Xerxes in his tracks. What can people possibly do to mess up that simple happening?

Actually the Greeks didn't "stop Xerxes in his tracks." Twenty seven days later he raized Athens to the ground, and killed all the remaining inhabitants. However, the vast majority of the Athenians followed Themistocles' advice and fled the city. Less than a week after the sack of Athens, Themistocles defeated the Persian navy at the Battle of Salamus Bay, and thus forced Xerxes (with his naval supplies cut) to withdraw from Greece.

Just off shore from the battle at Thermopylae, Themistocles was holding the Persian navy at bay, and even inflicting losses. The Battle of the Artemnesium Straight is the forgotten chapter of the war. Themistocles usually gets short shift in these epics. Is he in this movie?

Nev, you make a great point, what could go wrong wink, wink, wink? Frank Miller isn't alone in over-dramatising the battle. Are the Spartans alone making the last stand in the movie? They were originally a small unit in a 7,000 strong hoplite army. After Leonidas sends the bulk of the army back, 700 hoplites from the city-state of Thespyae stayed with them. So it was really 1000.

Ah heck, why am I going on about this? If it's an entertaining film it will impel some people to seek the truth, which is much more compelling, though it doesn't fit into 2 1/2 hours of yelling, bloodshed and genuflexing.

Men who lie, merely hide the truth; but men who tell half-lies, have forgotten where they put it--Samuel Clemens

The Blue Knight wrote:Just off shore from the battle at Thermopylae, Themistocles was holding the Persian navy at bay, and even inflicting losses. The Battle of the Artemnesium Straight is the forgotten chapter of the war. Themistocles usually gets short shift in these epics. Is he in this movie?

No, he wasn't. But there's always the director's cut haha.

Nev, you make a great point, what could go wrong wink, wink, wink? Frank Miller isn't alone in over-dramatising the battle. Are the Spartans alone making the last stand in the movie? They were originally a small unit in a 7,000 strong hoplite army. After Leonidas sends the bulk of the army back, 700 hoplites from the city-state of Thespyae stayed with them. So it was really 1000.

Nope, I was surprised as well, the Spartans were not alone. But they made the other greeks that were with them seem... well less manly of course. I don't want to give too much away of the movie, but Leonidas had some of them on corpse removal duty.

I saw this last week when yet another of my friends (and his mild-mannered girlfriend... which was an even bigger shocker to me) suggested I see it. Finally, I went to see it.

It was really very good - the one thing that impressed me the most, I have to say, is that the director didn't just present it as another cool battle with good special effects (although the effects were good). He added something extra to it - a different feeling in the lighting/action, and a narrator's voice in key moments. The slow-motion and what not was very cool too.

When I got home I actually was interested in the history of this war and did some reasearch... amazing that the losses the first day really were 10,000 Persians to 2-3 Greeks... that is something I thought only happened in the movies.

Quite inspirational for my own writing as well~

Knight Templar n. pl. Knights Templars or Knights Templar1.A member of an order of knights founded about 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade.

This is a bit off topic but who remembers the film Apocalypto by Mel Gibson? That film was also historically inaccurate and so I've come to the conclusion that making films historically inaccurate is the hollywood trend right now.